Child safety locks in motor vehicles are well known in the art. The purpose of child safety locks is to prevent a child from opening a vehicle door during vehicle operation. While child safety locks protect children during normal operation of a vehicle, they can produce a potentially dangerous situation. For example, if the child safety locks are engaged on an vehicle and a child enters a vehicle to play on a hot day, the child can become trapped in the vehicle without a way to exit. In particularly hot climates, children have been known to become trapped in hot cars and to very quickly die due to extremely hot temperatures inside the car.
Just recently, a three-year-old child in Houston, Tex. died from the internal heat of the vehicle after the child escaped the front door of his home in search of a toy in the backseat of his parent's vehicle. The child entered the vehicle, and the door closed behind him. It is believed the child attempted to open the door using the handles in the back seat of the vehicle but was unable to escape due to the child lock feature of the vehicle. The child died as a result of the temperature inside the vehicle and his inability to escape.
Problems of this nature have been recognized in the past but have failed to solve the safety issue. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,770,326 to Al-Qassem discloses a safety door, door lock, and door lock release mechanism for preventing a child from opening the door while permitting an adult to do so. As disclosed the system denies access to a child based upon a switch out of the reach of a child or alternatively a height sensor that would allow access to an adult but not the child. The disclosed also contains an alarm which would unlock the doors of a vehicle in the event that an unsafe situation such as smoke, or carbon monoxide is detected, said alarm also being audible.
Another patent, U.S. Pat. No. 6,081,758 to Parcvuescu discloses a system for automatically unlocking an automobile child safety door lock. As disclosed, the system includes an emergency sensor such as a collision sensor initiating an airbag deployment, a door lock mechanism, and a door lock releasing mechanism. Upon the sensor detecting an emergency, the sensor produces a signal that is sent to the door lock releasing mechanism, which subsequently unlocks the doors of the vehicle. The sensor may also trigger disconnection of the battery terminal and interruption of the fuel line from the fuel tank to the engine. The emergency sensor may alternatively include a temperature or smoke sensor.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,452 to Talbot discloses a vehicle having an automatic child lock function that is controlled by an electronic control system. The electronic control system receives signals from weight sensors in the base of each passenger seat. The findings from the sensors are used to determine the occupancy of the vehicle and to produce a signal indicative of the weight of each passenger. The electronic control system is programmed to operate such that if the signal received from the particular sensor indicates a passenger is below a predetermined weight, thereby indicating the presence of a child, the associated door is prevented from being opened from a closed position even when an interior door handle is operated by a passenger.
None of the above mentioned patents adequately address the dangers of an unsupervised child becoming trapped in a vehicle without the knowledge of an adult or other responsible party.
None of the above mentioned patents address releasing the child lock mechanism automatically every time an automobile is turned off, disabled, or left unattended for a predetermined amount of time.
Therefore, it is believed that there is a need and a large commercial market for a safety door lock release mechanism in accordance with the present invention. The market is present as there is not a simple, reliable, and affordable method of preventing children from becoming trapped in a vehicle currently available.
It is thought that a system in accordance with the present invention can be adapted to current designs, and sold at a very reasonable price to vehicle manufacturers around the world looking to improve the safety of their vehicles.